I thought I'd throw a general thread together for things I'm doing on the shop.
I'm going to go ahead and try and build a dirt cheap vapor blasting cabinet. I've been trying to find a cheap-to-me blasting cabinet to start the build, but after searching on Craigslist and other local for-sale ads, I've given up hope. I must have looked at over 9000 ads (yep the number of zeros is correct) and found all of two blasting cabinets. One was a broken down horrible freight that they wanted $100, and the other was a really too nice unit for what I'm contemplating, for $1,200. No bueno
I purchased a Street Rodder magazine, you really can't get far from your roots, and they had a coupon for a Harbor fraught unit for $139. So I guess I'll start there. I went and measured the working area, and it's a bit tighter than I wanted. I based that on trying to get a V6 block into the cabinet.
I've got to decide on using either the waste water pump or the old pool pump that I have on hand...probably that decision will be made by plugging them in and finding out if either still work. LOL
Anyhow, I'll get things together and give it a go. No it won't be pretty, expect a Rube Goldbergian contraption that just gets the job done.
Bought the horrible freight cabinet with the coupon. A buddy came up from the bay area to help put it together, he needs it for some motorcycle rebuilding. I can tell you that 4 hands are far better than two for this operation. We spent a bunch of time sealing everything with an excellent caulk, and this weekend I'll paint the inside white with flexseal.
I'll end up with a trash pump. You don't want one that grinds, as the grit would kill it in short order. Usually something with a composite pump section is best. Or, so I'm told.
There are no decent solvents, for cleaning parts, left in California. So, I've had to resort to an old standby. "Gas is for cleaning, alcohol is for drinking and Nitro is for racing"
Still works a treat. It just cleaning the gas smell off that's a bit of a trial. I recently put a set of V6 heads in a buddy's pro-parts cleaner, after two hours of soaking with 160* Ca-compliant cleaner, they still weren't what I was looking for.
Did it ever occur to the regulators that if they dumb down stuff to the point that it won't work that we'll go back to old high VOC solutions?
There are no decent solvents, for cleaning parts, left in California. So, I've had to resort to an old standby. "Gas is for cleaning, alcohol is for drinking and Nitro is for racing"
I've been using "Oil Eater" water-based, and it's ok for most things. Or scrub like heck with Dawn and wire brushes and scuff pads. Or recently I tried some magnesium wheel cleaner for alum parts. I hate what most degreasers do to aluminum, while vapor blasting produces beautiful results.
Your title made me chuckle...remember this funny old Tom Waits song? "What's Bob BUILDING in there??"
I haven't really found anything that works wonders with baked on carbon. And I'm still looking for the right solution for aluminum. Something that provides luster...not shine. It's a subtle but, to me, different look.
I haven't been able to find anything like Stoddard Solvent for several years, including in Nevada. So, I just buy "paint thinner" from Home Depot. Sometimes I'll spring for the "aromaless paint thinner", but it costs a bit more, and the aroma of mineral spirits doesn't really bother me. I suspect the aromaless paint thinner is..... stoddard solvent.
Varsol was the go-to decades ago.
Kerosene actually works ok for gunk-cleaning, but I prefer not to have that stink up my shop. I'll take a 5-gallon can out behind the shop for use with my spray-wand. The smell goes away pretty quickly out there.
Bob put new Varsol in his parts washer just in time for me to rebuild my Super's motor in his shop. Clean Varsol in a parts washer is gearhead nirvana!
Here it costs $7 X gallon. Too bad cannot send any.
I think it would be prudent to start sockpiling. Never know we may want to become EPA oriented. NOT
Spent another Sunday working on the vapor blaster, with my buddy from the bay area. We plumbed up the air and slurry lines, testing them with the gun upon installation. We also made a cart for the cabinet and the eventual slurry tank. We dug through the boneyard and found something serviceable for slurry tank and cut it down to size.
It's time to get the pump...I thought I had one around somewhere, but the Lovely Donna informed me that I gave it away. Bummer. So, time to spec one out.
We're hoping to have a working system when he comes back on September 8th. I told him to bring some motorcycle parts to blast.
And...September 8th turns into September 29th. I hope to make a bunch of progress. I'll pick up a pump tomorrow, and we'll see how far we get on Sunday. Finding a pump I like has taken a bit more time. I want one that will pass solids, even if those solids are glass beads. I'm going to buy a Zoller 1/3 hp cast iron pump, and for once I'll buy the extended warranty! LOL
I'll have to set up the plumbing to bypass a good bit of the slurry back to the sump. 42 gallons per minute will certainly exceed my needs. But anything smaller than a 1/3 hp is pretty chintzy crap.
I epoxy painted the inside of the cabinet white, to help with lighting, and we're going to add a bunch of stick on LEDs to light it up well.
We operated the cabinet a weekend ago. Still trying to learn how to use it correctly. I configured a bypass mode for the pump, which we used to stir the glass bead in the sump. Without the bypass, the pump cavitates, and less media gets to the gun. I also stuck some cleaner in the water, thinking that it would be a way to keep the water from going sour, and that it would help cleaning the parts.
If you know who Rube Goldberg is, I must be a descendant.
We have a couple of things to adjust. My mechanic friend things we are being hindered by an overly restrictive regulator, and the 80 grit glass bead is too coarse.
Pictures:
$78 worth of fittings
$170 pump
The contraption, waiting for water and media
Cleaned LS coil cover.
Yep, that water has grunge in it.
Decided to start playing with Cerakote. I've never been a big powder coat guy, I don't like the thickness and the loss of detail on parts. So I purchased a Cerakote starter kit for the air dry product. Cerakote Starter Kits & Pro Kits| Shop Cerakote Kits
My immediate desire was to use their MC-5100 aluminum clear, but I had to order that separately, because they wouldn't add it to the starter kit, which was an additional $35. For colors I purchased the titanium, graphite black and burnt bronze.
Today I sprayed the MC-5100. Easy to use, but make sure to wear your PPE, one whiff sent me running for mine. It is 50 state compliant, but still...
Not in any way, am I an accomplished fabricator/welder/restorer, etc, but i'm having fun just the same. Just an old guy, on a low budget, with a passion for making/fixing/doing stuff, and I thought I'd make my own thread to share what I'm up to in my 2 car garage.. This will be a mixture of...
www.garagejournal.com
Will add some pics in the next post of my results...
I think my biggest problem was using a grit that was just too coarse. It cleans things extremely well, but doesn't leave that satin finish. It's either that or I've cranked up the pressure too high. There are plenty of glass beads in the stream of water hitting the parts.
I purchased a pail of 300 grit beads, but haven't tried them out, yet.
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